Birmingham talks Biomedical Engineering and Big Data with guests from Chinese university

Southeast University Executive Vice President Professor Baoping WANG and University of Birmingham Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Eastwood.

A delegation of senior leaders from Southeast University (SEU) has visited the University of Birmingham to explore setting up a joint research institute.

Led by Executive Vice President Professor Baoping WANG, delegates from the Nanjing-based university visited Birmingham to discuss how a joint institute might benefit research collaboration in Biomedical Engineering and ‘Big Data’.

Delegates from the Chinese university met their UK counterparts in computational biology and biomedics, as well as discussing collaboration opportunities in Chemical Engineering.

Discussions also took place with experts from the School of Engineering to enhance collaboration in Electrical Engineering in both joint education and research.

The SEU delegation was welcomed by University of Birmingham Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Eastwood, who commented: “The University of Birmingham already enjoys a close collaboration with SEU and we believe that establishing a joint institute could lead to high-quality research that has global impact.

“Our expertise in computational biology is highly regarded and reflected in the University being invited to join The Alan Turing Institute, whilst we are carrying out pioneering research in Biomedical Engineering and Biomedical Devices.

“We very much hope to establish research and teaching collaborations that allow Chinese students to pursue academic achievement at a top British university, whilst our academics help to solve major health problems facing China and the wider world.”

Discussions also focussed on how the two universities might collaborate in the proposed Nanjing Health Data Centre – an initiative led by SEU to establish a large-scale biomedical big data infrastructure platform in Nanjing.

The project would create a national centre of excellence in health research, focusing on medical data relating to gene sequencing, bio-mass spectrometry, medical imaging, biomaterials, and organ chips.

SEU is ranked as the top university in China for biomedical engineering and hosts the National Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, the only national key lab of its kind. It is also home to the SEU-Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Devices, which focusses research on biomimetic organs and organ chips, biomedical materials, and medical imaging and Big Data.

Executive Vice President Baoping Wang of Southeast University commented: “Both Southeast University and University of Birmingham are top universities producing world-leading research. A close collaboration can help both universities to develop institutions across wide range of disciplines and support a large international community of researchers and students.

“Southeast University ranks first in China in Architecture, biomedical engineering, art theory, civil engineering, and transportation. Our engineering and computer sciences are amongst the best in the world. Establishing a joint research institute in biomedical engineering is a significant starting point for our co-operation and will accelerate future collaboration in more areas.

“Southeast University is establishing a large-scale biomedical big data infrastructure platform in Nanjing. SEU has been made aware of the great capability of University of Birmingham in this area, especially through the Centre for Computational Biology, and is very keen to establish links for both setting up the system in Nanjing and for future research collaboration.

“We are developing the ‘Double First-Class’ university project and we are really looking forward to working closely with the University of Birmingham, and attach great importance to enhance all around collaborations in both joint education and research.”

The University of Birmingham’s existing research links with SEU include engineering and materials sciences, energy storage, and genetics.

In May last year, the University signed an agreement with SEU to open up opportunities in research and education. Both universities also signed an agreement on Energy Storage, involving the Chinese E9 group of universities and six partners from the Russell Group.

The University of Birmingham recently joined the UK’s prestigious Alan Turing Institute, which was set up to advance the world-changing potential of data science. It was named in honour of the British pioneer whose work in theoretical and applied mathematics, engineering and computing laid the foundations for the emerging field of data science.

Notes for editors

The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 5,000 international students from over 150 countries.

The history of collaboration between China and the University of Birmingham dates back almost to the foundation of the University in 1901. The University’s China Institute was created in 2012 to reflect Birmingham’s extensive academic activities its colleagues undertake in China.

Southeast University, established in 1902, is one of the national key universities administered directly under the Central Government and the Ministry of Education of China. The university currently ranks 24th in China (NetBig 2013). SEU has a high-level faculty of over 2,700 full-time teachers, and an enrollment of 31,470 full-time students, including 15,017 postgraduate students.